1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of flexures for supporting the slider which carries the read/write transducer in a hard disc drive data storage device, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a flexure which is particularly suited to use with a slider which has wire connection terminals for the transducer on its top surface.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
The above-cited co-pending U.S. patent application discloses a one-piece, or unitary, flexure for mounting a slider body which in turn includes a transducer for recording and retrieving data--also referred to as writing and reading, respectively--in the magnetic medium on the surface of a rigid rotating disc. The slider body includes a self-acting hydrodynamic air bearing surface which interacts with a very thin layer of air pulled along with the spinning disc to "fly" the slider slightly above the disc surface. The above-cited Patent Application includes claims concerning a slider mounting tab formed in its gimbal section and intended to be adhesively bonded to the top surface of the slider body in the area closely adjacent to the trailing edge of the slider body. Such an attachment scheme anticipates that the transducer used for reading and writing is located on the trailing surface of the slider body and that the transducer termination points--for connection via wires to the read/write electronics of the disc drive--are also located on the trailing surface of the slider body. Heads using this type of transducer termination are the most common in current use.
Recent developments in automated production techniques, however, have lead to the development of heads in which the transducer terminations are on the top surface of the slider body in the area closely adjacent the trailing surface of the slider body. Since the above-cited Patent Application anticipates using this portion of the slider for attachment to the flexure, another configuration of the gimbal components was needed to allow for the use of top-terminated head assemblies.